When I set up the new Crow Bar shop website a few weeks ago, the only online payment system that was available to me was PayPal – which just about everybody knows about these days.

Today I added a local South African online payment system called PayFast, which works in very much the same way, but without all the niggling problems I have with getting funds out of my PayPal account into my South African bank account!

Despite my best efforts so far, my dealings with First National Bank (FNB) which is the only bank in South Africa which deals with PayPal, have been completely fruitless. Money goes into my PayPal account, but I can’t get any of that into my South African bank account – and FNB, despite claiming that “it works”, won’t assist me in person or even respond to my emails – but that’s a matter for another post some other time.

PayFast has been around for quite some time apparently, and has a good reputation – several of my friends and acquaintances use it on their business websites (which is how I got to hear of it) – and it will accept local and international payments, EFT, Bitcoin (!), as well as credit and debit card payments. The only thing I had to change on the shop site in order to use PayFast was the site’s currency – from USD to ZAR, which was reflected on each book sales page, which is why the prices are now in Rands instead of Dollars.

Unlike PayPal, buyers don’t have to register or have an account with PayFast to buy at the Crow Bar! All they need to do at the checkout is select the appropriate buttons to tell PayFast which bank they’re with, and then fill in the blanks in the secure spaces provided to execute an EFT – and it’s done, no mess, no fuss!